I think the present arrangement is perfectly fine for the next couple of years. William should not leave his career at RAF until the Queen really really slows down. And first few years away from London will the baby will be nothing but perfect. Too many royals roaming around will not be good, and it will keep some mystique for William and Kate. Why too soon..He is atleast gonna wait for another 30 years to become the King..And he doesnt have the 'leadership' thing like his father, atleast till now he has not shown any such thing. So I believe he will be really limited to dinners/ ribbon-cuttings, visiting hospitals etc if he jumps into scene now. That should not be done too long..

I think the present arrangement is perfectly fine for the next couple of years. William should not leave his career at RAF until the Queen really really slows down. And first few years away from London will the baby will be nothing but perfect. Too many royals roaming around will not be good, and it will keep some mystique for William and Kate. Why too soon..He is atleast gonna wait for another 30 years to become the King..And he doesnt have the 'leadership' thing like his father, atleast till now he has not shown any such thing. So I believe he will be really limited to dinners/ ribbon-cuttings, visiting hospitals etc if he jumps into scene now. That should not be done too long..

Personally, I think the pair should either do nothing or everything. They should stay in Wales, until William decides to finish his work in the RAF or HM passes away. Or they should come live in London, William give up his work and do full time royal duties. There will never be a way to do both and they will both get constant criticism for it, Catherine moreso.

The media and press want William to leave the RAF so he and Catherine can be photographed 24/7 but he is only a grandson of the current sovereign, and although personally I would like to see more of the couple, as long as the Queen reigns, I think her children and their spouses should shoulder the majority of 'royal duties' .

The media and press want William to leave the RAF so he and Catherine can be photographed 24/7 but he is only a grandson of the current sovereign, and although personally I would like to see more of the couple, as long as the Queen reigns, I think her children and their spouses should shoulder the majority of 'royal duties' .

I agree. The Queen is still reigning and IMHO it makes sense that she, the DoE, and her children should be in the forefront. When Charles becomes King then he and his family will shoulder the responsibilities.

Honestly, I think that at this point, Kate is being put in an impossible position. She can't overshadow her husband by being a full time working royal when he isn't, but she'll continue to face criticism that she's lazy if her engagements are limited. I think the Queen made a big statement about the future of the monarchy when she limited the Jubilee balcony appearance to the Wales branch of the family, and I think William and Kate will be under increasing pressure to become full time working royals.

If the Queen wants to streamline the Royal family during her reign, then I have no problem with William and Catherine becoming 'full-time' royals, but as long as her children and their spouses (and HM's cousins for that matter) are working royals, there is no point in her grandchildren becoming working royals.

If there is one downside to having a sovereign reign for 60 years, this is it. It creates a bottleneck of people below her.

1.Those who hate anything royal.They are not on TRF mostly on Ytube/DM
2.Those who watch royals just for their gowns/tiaras/PDA-pics etc..Pretty good number arethere on TRF
3.Those who seriously discuss real royal issues in interest of royals. Available strictly on TRF only

Now the 1st catefory will anyway complain and you can never satisfy them.
The 2nd category will say William is not doing much because they are not getting much to see of William/Kate, ie., pics, videos, etc. But they wont have any problem with William not taking up more royal role. They like him.
The 3rd category will usually discuss which is in good interest for William and monarchy. Some people may say his staying away will take away their relavance and people will get bored or forget royalty. People like me have other view.
So now you can judge which type of people are saying what and whether to worry about it or not..

If the Queen wants to streamline the Royal family during her reign, then I have no problem with William and Catherine becoming 'full-time' royals, but as long as her children and their spouses (and HM's cousins for that matter) are working royals, there is no point in her grandchildren becoming working royals.

If there is one downside to having a sovereign reign for 60 years, this is it. It creates a bottleneck of people below her.

Honestly, I think there's enough demand for William, Catherine and Harry that it doesn't matter if there are lots of working royals for the next ten years or so. I'm very intrigued by the Royal Foundation and the opportunities it presents, and I'd be very happy to see the foundation's work expanded. I think they could do a lot of good for a lot of organizations if they stepped up their appearances.

I do understand that they may not want to just yet, but I think it's going to be harder and harder for them to stay in the background.

Time will tell. I do think they wouldn't be expanding their staff or renovating a large space at Kensington Palace for their use if they didn't intend to increase their workload.

^^^^ I absolutely agree changes are coming and William and Catherine will take on more roles and duties but I understand why W&C and Harry are reluctant to jump into full-time roles when there are so many above them

I just wish the best for the Cambridges, no matter what they do. I think as long as they have each others love, support and make sure they take care of their family life, I think they will do just fine as fulltime members of the royal family.

Philip is the type of man that will be late for his own funeral.... too much other stuff to do.

Oh, that's a pretty accurate statement . I give him a lot of credit for going on, even though many people his age are either enjoying retirement, are in a nursing home, or not among us. I hope he has many, many more years ahead of him.

__________________"My guiding principles in life are to be honest, genuine, thoughtful and caring".
~Prince William~

If the Queen wants to streamline the Royal family during her reign, then I have no problem with William and Catherine becoming 'full-time' royals, but as long as her children and their spouses (and HM's cousins for that matter) are working royals, there is no point in her grandchildren becoming working royals.

If there is one downside to having a sovereign reign for 60 years, this is it. It creates a bottleneck of people below her.

The problem with your point of view is that most of full time royals are farther down the line than William and Harry. It makes more sense for those who are inheriting/closer to the throne to perform more engagements.

A large portion of the royal engagemnts are performed by people in their 90s, 80s, 70s & 60s. For the work to be done by senior citizens and not the 20-30 years olds enforces the perception that William and Kate are lazy.

^^^^^
Well my father was the same age as Philip when he died. He had been very active all his life but when we tried to tell him to slow down and take it easy or to step in and do things on his behalf he would say "If I can't do what I want you may as well take a gun and shoot me now because that is not the way I want to live". I rather think HRH feels much the same way, just carry on doing whatever until you drop.

A large portion of the royal engagemnts are performed by people in their 90s, 80s, 70s & 60s. For the work to be done by senior citizens and not the 20-30 years olds enforces the perception that William and Kate are lazy.

How can someone who has a full time job in the SAR plus a part time job as a working royal, including overseas tours, be considered lazy by any reasonable person? Seems like a pretty full schedule for anyone.

How can someone who has a full time job in the SAR plus a part time job as a working royal, including overseas tours, be considered lazy by any reasonable person? Seems like a pretty full schedule for anyone.

I agree with you completely, but I don't think people have the perception that William is lazy. That seems to be a charge that's more often unfairly directed at Kate. That's why I think she's being put in a rather precarious situation- she can't work as a full time royal before her husband does because she can't overshadow his role. But as long as she's not working and not doing full time duties, she's going to have to put up with a lot of jabs in the press about her lack of work ethic.

Now, there's a fair chance she doesn't actually give a damn. She seems to be a very centered person and doesn't seem to have any need to control her media image, but I'm also sure that she wants to be an asset to the family as much as possible.

Also... it occurred to me today that one more thing that's going to put pressure on them is how much harder it will be to keep up their current level of travel with a newborn. Right now, they pretty regularly travel from Wales to their office in London, but that might get a lot harder when you factor in a baby. The stability of having one home base might be appealing at that point. I imagine this is a very hard decision for William to make for a lot of reasons.

I thought feminism was all about allowing women the choice about how they lived their lives, including being a stay at home wife. A lot of women might consider being a military wife and homemaker and future mother as a full time job, and in Catherines case she also has a part time job as a working royal.